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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26141809">A Story Between Drafts</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasGetYourShotgun/pseuds/CasGetYourShotgun'>CasGetYourShotgun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Pacific Rim Summer Bingo 2020 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Loki: Agent of Asgard, Pacific Rim (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>10 Years Between Movies, Ambiguous Relationships, Chaotic Neutral Loki, Gen, Genderfluid Loki, God of Stories Loki, Implied Relationships, M/M, Post-Movie: Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), Time Travel Fix-It</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:49:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,268</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26141809</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasGetYourShotgun/pseuds/CasGetYourShotgun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As humanity prepares for another Kaiju War in the wake of the Mega-Kaiju, Hermann Gottlieb, PhD, wants nothing more than to go back and keep any of it from happening. But such a thing is impossible. </p><p>Isn't it?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Newton Geiszler &amp; Hermann Gottlieb, Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Pacific Rim Summer Bingo 2020 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1779406</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Pacific Rim Bingo 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Story Between Drafts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This fills my final PacRim Bingo square (10 Years Between Movies)! </p><p>Technically, this is the first part of a longer fic that I likely won't write in full but which is outlined <a href="https://mollyencrypted.tumblr.com/post/189042135353/terrible-uprising-fix-fic-ahoy">here</a>, because whilst I can't stand 99% of backwards time travel plots I hate Upraisin more.</p><p>The title comes from the third issue of <i>Loki: Agent of Asgard</i> because I really need to stop waiting until the last minute to name my fics.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>MOYULAN SHATTERDOME</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>2035</strong>
</p><p>
  <span>It was another late night in the K-Science lab. Doctor Hermann Gottlieb had sent his interns back to their quarters several hours earlier and now sat alone at his primary workstation, staring at the words on the screen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Words written by his former lab partner in an email from seven years ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Words he scoured, trying to find any indication of the terrible truth that he now knew lay behind them. That they'd all been to blind to notice. Too blind, too buoyed on their own success to see that the Kaiju War had been only a single battle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They'd all gotten cocky, and they'd all paid the price. And though his heart broke thinking of Mako and the fallen cadet, and he couldn't even think about the countless others who had lost their lives, there was one casualty his mind kept returning to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh, Newton," he murmured to himself, rereading the same line for the thirteenth time, "If only there was something I could have done." He sighed. "If I could go back-"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Then what?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermann spun around in his chair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The speaker was as unfamiliar in looks as he was in voice. He was built like one of the Rangers, dressed in a ragged green coat and with dark unkempt hair crowned with a broken-horned diadem, and he wore no shoes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he sauntered closer, Hermann felt very concerned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Who are you‽", he asked, pushing himself to his feet and brandishing his cane as an impromptu weapon (after all, it had served him well before in such a regard.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man smirked. "I am Loki, God of Stories," he said, "moon-king and wanderer, master-magician and teller of tales. You cried out to the Universe, and you were heard. So now you're stuck with me."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was patently absurd, and Hermann breathed a sign of relief as he realised what must be happening. "You," he replied firmly, "are a hallucination brought on by three days without sleep. Now off with you!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Loki just laughed. "'More of gravy than grave', you say? Well, you're wrong, Doctor Gottlieb. I'm just as real as you are."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermann scoffed. "I'm going to bed."</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>He was awoken at midday by someone banging pots and pans together. "Wakey wakey!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sat up. Loki was apparently not a hallucination, because he sprang to his feet from his position at the end of Hermann's bunk as the pots dissolved into thin air. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh good, you're awake! Don't worry, nobody heard that racket but you and I've already called the Marshal and told her—" and here he slipped into a pitch-perfect imitation of a sick Hermann, "'Marshall, I'm [*hack*] terribly sorry, but I seem to have [*cough*] contracted some kind of virus and will [*hack*] be quarantining myself for the next few days.'" He paused, looking down at himself for a moment. "And then some crap about making sure not to harm the war effort or something. Mind if I change? I'm terribly uncomfortable." And before Hermann could react in any way he was no longer looking at the young man who had appeared in his laboratory the night before but at a young woman of slighter build and longer hair. "Much better! Now, where were we last night?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What do you </span>
  <em>
    <span>want</span>
  </em>
  <span>?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Why, to help you, of course! Doubtless you'd rather deal with my lovely partner, but Neil was acting up again and nobody else was available to deal with that." She made a face. "Fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>Neil</span>
  </em>
  <span>, thinks he's better than the rest of us because he's the Soul and Messenger of - you know what, forget it, I've already spent longer on him than he deserves. This isn't about him. Point is, you'd love Verity but she's busy and so it's just me today."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I don't need help from some filthy-"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You don't need any help for </span>
  <em>
    <span>yourself</span>
  </em>
  <span>, sure, but what about for </span>
  <em>
    <span>other people</span>
  </em>
  <span>? Think about it, Herms-"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Don't call me that!" snapped Hermann, but Loki simply continued unperturbed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"-What do you want most in the world?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And without thinking, he answered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I...I want it to be ten years ago. I want to be with Newton when he initiates that first drift, to share the neural load. The Precursors wouldn't have taken over his mind then, I'm certain of it. He wouldn't reopen the Breach again, or build the rogue Jaegers. All those people would still be alive." </span>
  <em>
    <span>And instead they're all dead or dying, because I was cruel to him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>"Alright! Sounds like a plan!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What on Earth do you mean by that?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You want it to be ten years ago, so you can set right what once went wrong. We can do that."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Don't be absurd. The flow of time is like the flow of a river; it can only ever flow one way. It is simply impossible for light to travel fast enough to-"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yes, yes, nothing goes faster than the speed of light and all that. There's no flux capacitor, no Guardian of Forever, no Silver Key, no convenient plot device that'll let you go back and save your boyfriend or whatever he was to you. What there is," and Loki grinned wickedly, "is me."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You...can send me back?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Loki shrugged. "If it'll make for a good story, sure. Can't be worse than the one you're in right now at any rate."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"This is not a story; this is </span>
  <em>
    <span>real life!</span>
  </em>
  <span>"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Everything's a story, it's just that some are better than others."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Well if it's such a terrible story, what are you doing in it?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Like I said, I'm fixing it, if you'll accept my offer."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"And that would be…?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'll turn back the clock. Ten years, to the day your Newton first Drifted with that brain and fucked himself over. And in exchange, you become my agent. Through your actions, you create a better story, a better timeline."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hermann thought about it. He could save Newton. He could save Mako. He could save those cadets from having to become soldiers before their time. He could save the innocent people of Tokyo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could save Newton. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had to be worth a try. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"One condition."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Let's hear it."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He considered his words carefully, so as to leave no possible loophole. After all, if he was doing this to save everyone (not Newton, everyone, or so he tried to tell himself), he couldn't do so knowing he'd doomed the future he came from entirely. "Every Earth creature born in the last ten years will exist in the new timeline."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"We aren't erasing this timeline; it's more like reloading from a previous savepoint. And you're not really important enough to affect the lives and sperm of a whole bunch of randoms you'll never meet. No offense."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"...Alright. Then I accept."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Loki smiled, and snapped her fingers.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>To be a God of Stories is to be a God of Lies, and even an honest Loki tells many. There </span>
  <em>
    <span>is </span>
  </em>
  <span>a Silver Key somewhere in the universe, but knowing about it would have done Hermann Gottlieb no good. And there are plenty of other rituals that might have worked in the short term, but Hermann Gottlieb did not believe in such things, and they would have killed him anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But most of Loki's lies are those of omission.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He did not come to Hermann Gottlieb purely out of altruism, and the business of being a narrative agent is not easy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>For Loki's magics work by story-logic, and story-logic is a difficult thing to parse for one used to physics and mathematics.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The God of Stories offers no easy fixes.</span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
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